[geeitsme]

Hello everyone,

I'm an undergrad and currently preparing for the finals due in September.
Going through my organic prof's notes I stumbled across the concept of homodesmic reactions.
According to the notes they're for calculating the thermodynamic stabilization of aromatic cyclic systems compared to their unaromatic counterparts.

It goes something like you count the "equivalents" of C-H, C-H2 etc... bonds in different molecules whose standard enthalpy of formation you know and from that you somehow add and substract your way to an energy representing the stabilization your molecule experiences due to its aromatic character.

Googling it doesn't give me a lot of useful information and I couldn't find it in the library's books either.

Thank you so much in advance.

[movies]

Check out this link.

What is it that you are particularly having trouble understanding?